SYN Media

What’s in a show? By any other format it would still smell of sweat. 

I know what many of you are thinking, ‘Phoebe, with roughly 4,000 different shows, your process of choosing a show must have been quite lengthy and probably required a lot of research.’ Which is true, so good on you for thinking that. However, you must know there are so many varying ways of choosing a show and all of them may not be the rigorous process you think. Crazy, right?

How to pick a show 101:

I’m not going to lie if I didn’t use the Edinburgh Fringe as a way to see the acts I missed during the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Oh, what a fool I’d be if I didn’t. Some I even saw again, but I’m a strong, independent woman with a media pass, holding a sandwich. I’ll do what I want.

Ways of selecting a show may include, but clearly are not limited to the Festival guide, flyers around town or real big posters. Let’s begin.

The poster:

Now, I’m not saying that seeing a show based on a poster is the best way to select entertainment, however the costume sure got my attention. Damn.

It was one of those real big posters that caught this gal’s eye.

So that’s all it took. A vibrant red meeting a striking yellow backdrop and some pretty pink puffy pants…tutu. (?)

…and I skipped off to Tutu.

Six dancers show what they’ve got through varying genres of dance from contemporary to classical ballet, all thanks to French choreographer Philippe Lafeuille. In a mix of movement and music, Tutu brought out the humour in dance, which really summed up what the Fringe can offer.

Anything and everything.

Man, I’ve seen some things. Some wonderful things. Sketch, stand-up…men dressed in diapers. I promise you that was a show.

The workshop :

Something else a little different was ‘Clowning with Dr Brown-ing’, a workshop of sorts organised by comedian Nina Conti where comedian/teacher Philip Burgers (Dr Brown) put some talented comedians through their paces in a clowning workshop and as an audience we were invited to watch.

The comedians were Steen Raskopoulos, Pippa Evans and Stuart Goldsmith. (pictured below)

Dr. Brown’s clowning class focused on the comedians performing solo, after a cheeky warm up to loosen up their funny bones. They each took turns in taking direction from Dr. Brown. He reminded them to check in on the audience to see if bits worked well or not and to acknowledge the success or failure of each mini performance.

The App:
The Fringe has a pretty sweet app that lets you keep track of all the shows on and even alerts you to the ones close by to you and by time. I snuck into a venue because it was super close to me and I really wanted to see more work. I needed more. Comedy is addictive.

The show I stumbled into was created by Britney, no not the ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time’ pop-star but a comedy sketch duo Charly Clive and Ellen Robertson. 

Two 20 something year old mates from the UK. In their show ‘John’ that reminisces about the time the two pals, just out of high school ventured to America to find out more about John Hancock and film interviews of any other humans around the USA with the same name.

Their trip overseas became the backdrop of the show, with critique of their footage and interviewing technique strong points of the show.

Their ability to create stand alone vignettes and natural storytelling was a highlight and revealed the effort both Clive and Robertson put into their follow up to their previous show ‘Britney’…which is also now the name of their duo, not confusing at all. I strongly believe we will be hearing big things from these two talented performers.

xoxo readers. I only hug online in o’s, because Oh my God that’s the end to another Edinburgh tale.
Stay gorgeous.
Phoebe ooo